It seems that Intel and Yahoo are teaming up to create a new version of the failed WebTV. An article on bbc describes it pretty well. The main difference here is this new chip from intel, designed specifically for web-connected devices, will allow you to use widgets (if you have an igoogle account, you’re probably quite familiar with widgets) and still view television as normal – something WebTV could not do. I could see this actually catching on, depending on initial price, etc. How many people do you know who watch television with their lap-top on the coffee table? I can think of five off the top of my head. One thing that is not mentioned, is if the ability to harness the internet outside of the widget capability will be included. The picture-in-picture functionality could be quite fun; one screen playing the new season of Heroes, while the other is posting “OMG did you see that” in the fan-boy forums. It could just be what WebTV was trying to do.
Remember WebTV?
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Actually, while the technology is sluggish and no longer supports many websites, or attachments, the WebTV Plus units have Picture-in-Picture that let you surf the web while watching television. However, the MSNTV2 which came out as a result of a need for broadband WebTV does not capture Television shows. This sort of defeats the advantage of using one’s television to surf the web.
It will be interesting to see what Yahoo and Intel do together.